The Aga Khan Music Awards recognise exceptional creativity, talent, and initiative in music performance, creation, and education, and in the preservation and revitalisation of musicin societies where Muslims have a signi cant presence.Through their focus on the constellation of devotional music and poetry, indigenous classical music, traditional folk music,and tradition-inspired contemporary music that has ourished in cultures shaped by Islam, the Aga Khan Music Awards ll a unique cultural role. These musical genres and styles embodymusic’s traditional role as a source of spiritual enlightenment, moral inspiration, and social cohesion in societies across theworld. At a time when strengthening tolerance and pluralism is an acute worldwide priority, music o ers an exciting medium for reaching and involving global audiences.
Global leaders in arts, education, and culture, master musicians and composers, festival directors and record producers, impresarios, arts patrons and distinguished scholars are scheduled to gather in Lisbon, Portugal for the inaugural ceremony of the Aga Khan Music Awards, a three-day event featuring concerts, musical presentations, a symposium,exhibition, and the awarding of prizes. A prize fund of US$ 500,000 is to be divided amongst the awardees.
The Music Awards grew out of the Aga Khan Music Initiative, a programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, whose activities support preservation and promotion of the material,spiritual, and artistic heritage of Muslim societies. As thecultural agency of the Aga Khan Development Network, the Trust leverages cultural heritage as a means of enhancingand catalysing development. The Music Initiative and theTrust for Culture are well positioned to create and manage a platform that showcases the richness, diversity and virtuosity of musical expression in the Muslim world, both historicallyand in the present.
The Ismaili Imamat and the Portuguese Republic have, for many decades, developed a strong relationship and commitment focussed on shared values such as the defence of human dignity, the promotion of pluralism and theimprovement of quality of life. In 2015, the Ismaili Imamat andPortugal signed an International Treaty for the establishmentof the Seat of the Ismaili Imamat in Portugal, formally designated as the Diwan of the Ismaili Imamat. Lisbon, a citydistinguished by its tradition of valuing diversity and tolerance and home to the Diwan of the Ismaili Imamat, the Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat-Portugal and an Ismaili Centre, is an exemplary location for the inaugural awards ceremony, which has been organised in collaboration with the City of Lisbon and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and has the patronage ofthe President of Portugal and the Ministry of Culture.
Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat in Portugal
